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Low Playerbase

Description: The MUD has been losing old players and not gaining any new players. Thus, the playerbase has gone down drastically over the past 2-3 years. This affects all aspects of the MUD:

Less players means less players becoming wizards which means less new wizards. Resulting in no addition of new areas for quite some time. I don't think I have to dig deep into this, everybody knows the consequence of no new wizards and I think Paradox mentioned it in his letter.

Low playerbase means less players that PK. You can also see that most guild leaders are non-active, banished or whatnot. So guild channels are quite dead.

Some guilds rely on tau/morale. Less players means less fun overall. Basically its not fun to play when nobody is playing WITH/AGAINST you. This is a multiplayer game not single player.

If we can't think of some way to bring in new players this mud will slowly become a ghost-town, like Paradox mentioned.

I don't really have a solution yet other than advertising on mud websites. Anybody got some ideas on this one?
— Volrath 2010/04/04 17:13

It seems to me that you can't over-estimate the power of word-of-mouth. The mud websites are great for that, because they allow people to not just vote for a mud, but also write reviews about them. If the current players took a few minutes, and wrote about what they liked best about the game in a review, I think it might help a lot. Especially since I just went to TopMudSites (following Iolai's link) and found that the most recent review for Dune was written in 2003. Having more recent player reviews will show that the mud hasn't died off, but is actively played. It might even be an idea for different players to write about their experiences at different level ranges or within different guilds, so that people can really get a feel for what the game's like. …or at least get excited about it.

Apropos, mud websites only allow you to vote so many times within a day, and it's important to get everyone to vote as often as they can (in the case of TopMudSites, once every twelve hours) to help keep your mud high in the ranks. In Kerovnia, with just three active people, we were able to keep our ranking high enough for a while to get about one new player logging in a day for a couple weeks. We weren't able to maintain the momentum, in part because with only a couple people on the mud regularly it's hard to have someone online to greet the new-comers, but I think Dune can be much more successful in keeping its ranking high enough to attract new players, as well as having people online to greet them and offer help when they arrive.

As people are already beginning to add entries to this wiki, I don't think this will be terribly difficult. Consider asking people who are actively posting on the wiki to add a review to the mud websites above.

My guess is that alot of dunemud people have an active online presence and make use of several technologies and social networks through which they can share their experiences in their favourite online game and advertize DuneMud. — temujin 2010/04/26 07:05

Allowing Multi-play

The MUD isn't the same MUD it used to be. The extremely low population as of late is a poor show for new players and I know it detracts them because it would detract me. While trying to think of ways some simple changes might benefit the MUD this is one of them that I think should be considered. I just ask you at least seriously consider this because it is a change that I believe can be reverted with little damage done if it doesn't work out.

Rules:

1. You are allowed to play more than one character at time.

2. You may share solaris and equipment between your characters.

3. You may not participate in PK that involves an alt of yours, that includes PKing yourself.

[Optional] You may not party with an alt.

Pros:

1. With more characters online the mud will have the atmosphere of being active.

2. Players would be able to have something to do during combat spam grind.

3. Players sitting on a lot of solaris will have something to spend it on.

4. It will be easier for active players to switch to an alt in another guild to help newbies without having to stop grinding their main character.

5. Less policing of multi-logging, solaris/gear sharing.

6. Easier to train alts.

7. More overall guild presence.

8. It can be a temporary measure or test and retracted if it doesn't work out.

Cons:

1. Still must police for multi-play PK.

2. The game becomes easier for people with hoards of solaris to throw around.

3. PK spying

4. Someone could, for trolling purpose, log a bunch of alts. I think they could do that now but I think that would fall under harassment.

The only serious problem I see is Con #3. If possible abilities to locate guild mates should allow for those guild mates to be invisible if they so choose. The ability to use your own channels allows for a means of group conversation with trusted people.